Title: Snap!
Author: Aviy
Character: Hughes
Disclaimer: Writing mine, characters not.
Notes: Just a cute, short little thing inspired by a comic and a song.

CC appriciated.


The truth was, he'd hated cameras growing up.

It was all his grandmother's fault. The 'craggy old witch', as his dad so fondly called her, told him a story about how having your picture taken was as good as having your soul stolen. It would sit there forever, trapped in sepia, and you'd be a slave to the photo's owner unless they found the compassion to rip it appart and free you.

Now, Maes Hughes was by no means a coward of any kind at any age, but he was, when necessary, prudent. His soul didn't seem all that important at six, but slavery sounded simply awful. He was a good boy, yes, but there were limits to those kinds of things. And while he loved his mother dearly, always going to bed exactly on time, and never getting muddy ever again just because he'd held still long enough for a camera to snatch his soul simply didn't seem fair.

This, perhaps, explains why his mother never got along with his grandmother at all. But Maes had thought it was only a fair warning.

As he aged Maes lost and regained his soul any number of times, but only once did he ever give it up freely.

On the night he proposed to his would-be wife, there hadn't been money for a ring. Not the one she deserved, the one he'd started saving for the day he met her. It would come, in time, but in place of it he handed her a photograph and told her a stoy from his childhood.

Gracia never did tear up that picture and free him, but instead bought a camera and throughout the years tolerantly let him capture her as often as he liked.